Friend of Chaos
by VampAmber
Summary: Dena starts at Hogwarts the same year as the Weasley twins, whom she quickly becomes friends with. But Jamie is not a person you mess with.


Author's Notes: Just a little OC I created for the Harry Potter universe. This may be my first HP fanfic, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse. If it's bad, tell me. I never get constructive criticism, which bugs me because I would love to know how to fix my mistakes. I started this back in August, thinking that there needed to be far more fics about the Weasley twins. So. Here it is. Read, review, tell me what I did right, what I did wrong, and if you liked it. And my deepest apologies for using up this whole chapter almost just on her story. Next chapter, should I choose to write it, won't be so back story-clogged, I promise. Disclaimer: I don't own anything belonging to J.K. Rowling. I don't even own the books, which is very sad indeed. Dena and the other original characters I do own, as far as I know.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
It was only a few weeks after Dena had turned had turned eleven when the letter, delivered by an owl no less, had arrived. It had said that Dena had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her parents, being muggles through and through, had never heard of such a school but were excited anyway.  
"Our daughter, accepted into such an, apparently, prestigious school as Hogwarts! How splendid!" Her father had almost cried.  
"You know dear, I do believe that my great-great-great-grandmother on my father's side was a witch. It must run in the family." Her mother had said, a tear looking like it wanted to trail down her face from the sheer pride.  
Dena, on the other hand, had immediately phoned her friend Maxine. "Yeah, Hogwarts. I know, never heard of it before. Must be new. Yeah, we should definitely phone Alisa, see if she got one. Too bad you weren't accepted too. Yeah, see you in a few Max." She hung up the phone, and grabbed her purse in her mad dash to Baker Drive.  
Panting and out of breath, she arrived on Maxine's doorstep in only three minutes. "Lemme see it, lemme see it!" shrieked her friend, almost diving onto Dena in an attempt to seize the letter. "Cripes. It really and truly is an invitation to a witchery school." Maxine muttered, staring down at the parchment.  
"Delivered by a barn owl, no less," Dena added, still amazed at the whole thing as well.  
"I'll grab my purse, then we'll run to Lis's house, 'kay?" Maxine cried, already running up the stairs without waiting for an answer. Dena just stared at the letter some more.  
When Maxine came running back down, Dena pointed at the back of the letter. "It's a seal, of sorts. Some sort of school crest or something, I guess. It has a lion, a snake, a bird, and some sort of cat type creature or something of that sort on it. I wonder what they mean." She pondered that while Maxine closed the door behind them, and they both took off running for Alisa's house, which was three blocks down from Maxine's, still on Baker Drive.  
"Alisa! Alisa!" They wailed, running up to her house, startling her cat with all the noise.  
"Wot?" Alisa said, walking out in her bathing suit, still dripping wet from the pool in the backyard.  
"Did you get a letter delivered by an owl?" Dena almost screamed, getting a stern look from Mrs. Bloom, Alisa's grouchy next door neighbor.  
"A letter by an OWL?" Alisa said, so confused it almost hurt. Dena and Maxine then proceeded to tell her the whole story, no matter that it was short.  
"So you're accepted to a school called Hogwarts, and it's for witches?" Alisa asked, amazed by the story she had just been told. Dena and Maxine just nodded. "Odd," Alisa said, before being interrupted by her mother.  
"Alisa, your cousin Jamie wants you on the phone," she called, holding the phone out for her daughter; hand cupped so as Jamie not to hear her.  
Alisa grabbed the phone. "Hi Jamie. Yeah. Yeah. No way. Dena just came over with the same thing. Really? Wow, that's amazing. Cool. See you tomorrow then? Ok, bye." With that, she hung up the phone and walked back out onto the front porch, her friends now staring at her. "That was Jamie," she said, putting a strand of dripping hair behind her ear. "Well, looks like she's starting at Hogwarts the same time as you, Dena." She showed her sympathy, and started hand combing her hair.  
"Jamie?" Dena yelped, almost falling off the wicker chair she had been sitting in. "No! Not Jamie! Anybody but that holier-than-thou evil monster!"  
"And she's coming here tomorrow?" yelped Maxine, trying to scramble out of her chosen wicker chair. "Hide your good dresses and best dolls! The terror from London is coming here!" She yelled, only slightly joking. No one could now forget the last time Jamie the menace had visited. She had ripped and stained all four of Dena's good dresses, and had ripped the head off of Mr. Pippers and Chloe Marie, Maxine's favorite dolls at the time. She had also tried to flush Alisa's poor cat down the toilet, something which she had found a way to blame on Alisa. Alisa had been grounded for two weeks for that.  
"Oh, yeah?" Dena yelled, now loud enough for Mrs. Bloom to really start scowling ferociously. "Well at least you don't have to go to school with her! This thing says 'First Years'. That means there's going to be more than one year! I'm stuck with her for more than a year! Ahh!" She screamed, not caring that Mrs. Bloom was giving her the scowling of a lifetime. She threw herself back into her chair, and put her head in her hands and sighed. "I am so dead."  
"Maybe it won't be so bad, Dena. Maybe you'll, umm. Have different schedules or something. Or maybe her letter was a fluke, and she'll be sent home the next day." Maxine said, trying to cheer up her friend.  
"I highly doubt that, Max. There's always been the family rumors that Aunt Nannette was a witch, I'm guessing now that they weren't rumors after all. And I always did think something was weird about Jamie. I mean, she'd look at you, and you would believe almost anything that came out of her mouth. Very not good." Alisa grimaced, threw herself down next to Dena, and repeated her friend's head in hands movement.  
"I'm dead, I'm dead, I am so dead," Dena just kept muttering under her breath.  
"Well," Maxine said, being the ever optimist, "things might get better tomorrow."  
They didn't.  
"Why, if it isn't little Dena," Jamie said, knowing full well that Dena despised that nickname. "Little Dena the witch wannabe. Poor thing, actually believes that Hogwarts didn't make a mistake in sending her an acceptance letter." She laughed in Dena's face, and sauntered off. "By the way, little Dena?" She called over her shoulder. "If I were you, I'd stay far away from Slytherin. That's where my mother was, and that's where I'm sure to be. I know you'd never fit there, so go move into Hufflepuff or somewhere else." She then sauntered off completely.  
"Slytherin? Hufflepuff? Wha?" Dena said, looking just as confused as Maxine and Alisa.  
"They're house names, dears. Slytherin is where all the powerful warlocks and witches go. I'm sure you'll be much more comfortable in some place like Gryffindor," Alisa's aunt Nannette said before breezing past the three girls, following in her rude daughter's footsteps.  
"Great family you've got, Lis." Maxine said, before blowing a raspberry.  
Dena was just looking at a twig, and then picked it up. "I'm a witch, right?" She asked, evil grin spreading across her lips. Maxine and Alisa nodded. The evil grin got wider, and then the other two faces started their own. She picked up the stick, and tried waving it around a bit. She giggled, and said off of the top of her head "Stick of power, stick of yew, turn Alisa's aunt's hair blue." She looked at the stick again, right before the scream of terror wafted out of the house.  
"MY HAIR!" screamed Nannette in rage, before storming out of the house and picking Dena up by the collar. "You horrible, awful thing! You turned my hair blue, I know you did!" At this point, Alisa was rolling around on the porch, laughing like a mad man, and Maxine was almost turning blue herself from trying to keep in the laugher. But Dena was far from laughing. Nannette was holding her as if to curse her and Dena's eyes were wider than those of a deer in headlights.  
"I swear! I don't know how I did it! I swear, I do!" Dena screamed, as if for her life.  
Nannette was about to turn her into a toad, until she saw that half the neighborhood was watching her threaten this small child for turning her hair blue. She chuckled, the fire still present in her eyes. "Of course you didn't," she replied through gritted teeth. "How could I have thought such a foolish thing?" She put Dena back on the ground, still chuckling. But before leaving, she gave Dena a look that said, plain as day, 'I will seek my revenge.' She then stomped past her niece and friend and walked back inside, already starting to mutter a counter spell.  
"Umm. Wow," Alisa muttered, amazed that anybody could actually stand up to her monster of an aunt and live.  
"Thought you were done for, there for a minute Dena," Maxine said, as amazed as Alisa. It was then that they heard yet another scream from inside the house, this one belonging to Jamie.  
"She's coming back to London WITH us?" screamed the spoiled witch brat. "No bleedin' way! I won't hear of it!" She screamed again, this time making noises as if throwing a fit.  
"Temper tantrums won't work this time, young lady. Her parents have already found that they need someone to help her shop, and I used to know Carla, so that means she's going," followed Nannette's voice, apparently the problem with her hair all fixed.  
Dena just did the deer in headlights thing again. "I'm? Going? With? THEM?" Dena wailed in disbelief. Alisa stood, transfixed on the door, disbelief swallowing her whole.  
"Not a fate I'd wish on my worst enemy, let alone my best friend. I am so sorry Dena," Alisa said, looking as if she were about to cry.  
Likewise, Maxine was patting Dena's back, trying to be soothing, comforting, and calming. "That is very bad, very bad. Maybe you could learn to turn her into a toad or something." She smiled, even though the pity in her eyes betrayed her.  
Dena just moaned in reply.  
"Ok, what all am I supposed to pack again?" Asked Dena as she ran around her room three days later, grabbing anything she thought she might need.  
"Hmm, lemme check," Alisa said, looking back down at the piece of parchment in her hand. "Well, the books and wands and things, you're buying in London, so no worries there. Same goes for the cauldron and such. Ooh, that winter cloak you got in that vintage shop. That you must pack. Says so right here." She pointed at the list, grinning triumphantly. "Other than that, though, all you really need to pack is your clothing and toothpaste and things like that." She set the list down again, lying face down on Dena's bed.  
"I'm gonna miss you too, I know. But you know what? You're a year younger than me; you might end up there next year." Dena grinned widely, even though she verged on the edge of tears. There was then a tearful hug between the two friends, and then a few mournful wails as they remembered who Dena would be stuck with for the next few days.  
"She does anything, and I mean anything, bad, tell me and I'll be on her in a second. She may have done a few not fun things to me in the past few years, but she will NOT mess with one of my two best buddies in the whole universe. Just remember that Dena, ok?" Alisa paused then, thoughtful expression clouding her face. She then burst into a new set of tears. "I'm going to miss you so much!" She wailed at the top of her lungs.  
"Me too!" wailed Dena, equally as loud. They sobbed together for a few more minutes, and would have sobbed longer had it not been for Dena's mother, calling to them that Nannette was here and ready to go. "Oh, bugger," Dena said, snapping her fingers.  
"Send me and Max a postcard from London, okay?" Alisa asked, wiping the tears off of her cheeks.  
"Of course. One for each of you." With that, Dena gave Alisa one of the strongest bear hugs imaginable, and wiped yet another tear from her eye.  
"Dena, I told you five minutes ago that Nannette was waiting! Are you coming or not?" Dena's mother's voice came wafting up from the bottom floor.  
"Coming mother," Dena yelled in reply. She shrugged her shoulders, and muttered "Mothers" before giving Alisa one last quick hug. She took off running down the stairs, her bag in one hand, cat carrier full of her birthday present kitten Nibb in the other, her mostly empty steamer trunk already packed in Nannette's car.  
"I'm not sitting in the back seat with her, mother!" Yelled Jamie, looking as if she were about to have another temper tantrum.  
"Fine dear, you sit in the front seat," Nannette said nicely to her spoiled daughter. "Sit in the back seat please, Denny," she said in an entirely different tone to Dena, calling her a wrong name on purpose. Dena just nodded and sat in the back, pushing over one of Jamie's very full bags in order to sit, and a few smaller bags to make room for the cat carrier holding Nibb.  
Dena knew it was to be a long trip before even leaving the driveway. As soon as Dena was seated, Jamie turned around in her seat and stuck out her tongue at her. She then yanked the small travel pillow from next to Dena and laughed as she almost flew backwards after this upset. Dena just rolled her eyes and grabbed for her book.  
After quite a few minutes of unsuccessful attempts to annoy Dena, Jamie started messing with Nibb, who would have none of it. Hissing and clawing, the small kitten bit into the hand Jamie currently was pulling her tail with. Jamie yowled in pain, and Nibb just mewled innocently. "Mother!" Jamie hollered. "Dena made her cat bite me!" She then started faking tears of pain.  
"Dena! If you don't quit tormenting my child, I will pull this car over and dump you on the side of the road, and I don't care what Carla would say!" Nannette yelled, the car wavering slightly from her fury.  
Dena just looked up from her book, startled. She hadn't even been paying attention until Jamie had screamed at her mother. "Yessum," she muttered just loud enough for Nannette to hear, and then went back to reading her book.  
Jamie just sat in her seat and pouted. Boy did she pout. She pouted all the way into the London city limits, and then she only stopped pouting because they were home, or at least the Brentten home. Nannette had married rich, and the house was enormous.  
"Oh, just hurry up already," Nannette hollered at Dena, pulling the car door open in impatience. Dena, who was trying to untangle the knots that Jamie had tied in her shoelaces, just nodded and tried to hurry up. She finally managed to get her overnight bag and the cat carrier untangled, and with that she was pushed to the house. "The basement has a small couch, you can sleep on that Denny," Nannette said, pointing Dena in the direction of a door.  
Dena trudged downstairs and saw the heap of a couch. She grimaced, but pulled on her pajamas anyway. Letting Nibb out of the cage, she grabbed an old afghan off the back of the couch and curled up, trying to sleep. After a few minutes, Nibb, who had worn herself out by running around in circles so fast it made her head spin, jumped onto the couch next to Dena and curled up, falling asleep with the speed only something so young could ever hope to possess. "Should be an interesting day tomorrow, Nibb," Dena said to the sleeping kitten.  
"Wake up Denny, we're leaving in an hour," came the voice from the top of the basement stairs. Dena woke with a start, and tried to massage the crick out from her neck, with no success. After getting dressed and packing her things back into her trunk, she ran upstairs to find that Nannette and Jamie had just finished breakfast. "There's some toast for you on the counter, Denny dear," Nannette said, pointing to two very burnt slices of toast on the counter.  
"Umm, thanks," Dena said, looking at the toast as if it were radioactive waste. She covered it in butter, hoping to smother the taste, but it was still horrible.  
"Time to go now," Nannette said, yanking Dena by the arm a few minutes later. Her toothbrush fell into the sink, and she only just saved it from being left behind.  
The car ride to London was just as bad as it had been the day before. Jamie sat in the front and stole Dena's book to keep her from reading it and ignoring her. She kept pulling faces and making mean comments, but Dena just suffered silently. Twice, Jamie tried blaming something on Dena, and each time Dena was scolded and threatened punishment, and each time Jamie acted as if this were an early Christmas present.  
Sometime near dinner time, Nannette pulled into a back street, and told Dena to get her stuff out of the car. Walking a few steps behind Jamie and her mother, Dena had only a few seconds to read the sign above the doorway. The Leaky Cauldron? What the heck was that supposed to mean? But before she could ponder it too much, Nannette had yanked her arm yet again, this time into what looked like a bar right out of a history book.  
"And 'ow many rooms'll that be?" The man behind the bar/desk asked Nannette.  
"Two. One suite with two beds, and one... One of your cheapest rooms, please?" Nannette asked the man, who immediately nodded and handed her two keys, one new and shiny, the other old and quite rusty looking.  
"Rooms eight an' ten, ma'am," he told her. She nodded, and waited for the person to take her's and Jamie's luggage up the stairs. Dena, on the other hand, had to carry her own up.  
Before getting to her room, she saw the suite the others had got. Such a big room, with two plush beds. Dena stared before being pushed off to her room, number eight. When she opened the door, she was even more astonished. The small room had almost nothing but the necessities. A small bed, a night stand with a small lamp, and a door to what must've been a bathroom met her gaze. "Eeash," Dena muttered under her breath before pushing her trunk under her bed for the next few nights, and letting a protesting Nibb out of her carrier once again. The small grey kitten meowed, as if asking why she was in such a small room, and Dena just sighed. "Nibb, she's paying for this room out of her own pocket, so we shouldn't complain," Dena told the kitten. Nibb just meowed again and jumped onto the small, empty shelf before curling up and taking a cat nap.  
The dinner that was brought up to her was quite meager, which Dena guessed was the standard fare for those who could only afford the room she was staying in. After eating, she took a shower and went to bed, seeing as how there really was nothing better to do.  
The loud knocking on her door woke her the next morning. She looked at her watch blearily, and realized it was already nine in the morning! "Hurry up Dena, I don't like waiting!" Jamie yelled from the other side of the door.  
"I'll be down in five minutes!" Dena yelled back, already grabbing a pair of jeans and a red shirt out from her trunk. Five minutes later exactly, Dena jumped the last step and ran over to the table where Jamie and Nannette had been waiting. Her brown hair was in a messy pony tail and her shirt was rumpled, but Dena really didn't care. She was going to buy magic books and a wand!  
"Ok, Diagon Alley is this way," Nannette said, smiling warmly at her daughter and almost pretending that Dena didn't exist. She went to the backyard of the inn, to a brick wall. But after tapping a few stones with what Dena guessed was her wand, it opened up to reveal a doorway to a shopping market.  
"Wow," Jamie and Dena said at the same time. Jamie glared at Dena when she realized what they had just done, but Dena was so enthralled by Diagon Alley that she couldn't care less.  
"Olivander's first, then, off on our own," Nannette announced. She sounded as if she were eager to get rid of Dena, which was close to the truth.  
"Olivander's?" Dena asked before getting yanked away by the arm. 'I'm really starting to get sick of being drug around like this,' she thought, and grumbled. But her sour mood only lasted a few seconds, because when they actually got into Diagon Alley, she was too busy staring in amazement to feel anything else. There were people everywhere, and so many weird but interesting things in all the shop windows. They passed by shops with animals, with brooms, and with what Dena guessed were spell ingredients. Near the end, Nannette drug her into a dark and dreary shop full of nothing but thousands of little boxes packed tightly on long shelves. "What're...?" Dena started to ask, when an ancient man stepped out from behind one of the shelves.  
"Ahh, two new Hogwarts students, I see," he said slowly. He took out a tape measurer and stood in front of Jamie. "Wand arm, please?" He asked, and Jamie held up her left arm promptly. He took measurements and muttered to himself, occasionally writing down little bits and pieces of information on a small note pad. He walked over to one of the shelves, and grabbed a box. "Now, let's see how this one is," he said, opening it up and holding up a wand. "Unicorn hair, willow, twelve and a half inches." He handed it to Jamie, who waved it, causing a pile of papers on the desk to go flying. "No, no," the old man said, taking it back. He grabbed another box and handed the wand to Jamie. "Phoenix feather, elm, thirteen inches. A very strong wand," he told Jamie. Jamie grasped it in her hand, and was surrounded suddenly by a warm golden glow. It lasted only a few seconds, but it was apparently what the old man had been waiting for. "And now for you, miss." He grinned, trying to ease away her obvious fear.  
"Umm, I really don't know which one's my wand arm, sir," she said meekly.  
"Well, miss, which hand do you write with?" The old man asked, smiling. His soothing presence helped calm Dena down.  
"My right hand, sir." She answered, not quite as meekly this time.  
"Then that would be your wand arm." He told her. She nodded, and let him measure her right arm. After a few mumbled comments, he went to a different shelf, and picked up a box. He opened it, and handed her the wand. "Phoenix feather, yew, ten and three-fourths inches." She took it, and did as Jamie had, and gave it a swing. A nearby vase broke, and Dena yelped.  
"Omigosh! I'm so sorry sir! I didn't mean to do it!" Dena yelped, terrified that she was about to get yelled at.  
"It's ok dear, happens all the time." He took the yew wand from her, and went in search of a new one. "Try this one," he said, and handed her a different wand. "Unicorn hair, redwood, eight inches." She held it, and as carefully as she could, waved it. A stack of books was knocked over, and she yelped her sorries yet again. "Not that one, then." He went to the back of the store, and came out carrying another box. "Try this one. Dragon heartstring, redwood, eleven inches." Dena grabbed it lightly, and felt warm all over. He nodded, and she swung it, lifting up the box that held it. He nodded again, and then went to the old fashioned cash register to ring up the wands.  
Nannette handed him a handful of coins, and Dena stared. "What are those things?" She asked, not caring that she sounded rude.  
"This is wizarding money, Denny," Nannette told her. She then reached into her purse and handed Dena a velvet bag with what felt like coins. "Your parents gave me enough for you to buy your things. It's all in there. You have the list, now go," Nannette said, now being the rude one.  
Watching Jamie and her mother go in one direction, Dena headed in the other. "Ok, I need some books," she muttered under her breath, looking at the list of things she needed. She headed towards the book store they had passed earlier, holding the package containing her wand tightly.  
She stepped into the crowded shop only to be knocked into a bookshelf by a fast-moving woman with red hair chasing after a child. "No! No! Ron, you get back here right this instant!" She yelled, running after the red haired child, who didn't look too much younger than herself. "Fred! George! You are both in trouble when I find you!" She yelled, at what Dena guessed were her other children.  
Dena stared in disbelief as the child and the woman disappeared out the doorway. After taking a moment or so to calm back down after such an interesting event, Dena started looking around at the books, trying to find the ones on her list.  
Arms loaded with books, there was only one left on her list to find, so Dena went in search of it. She spotted the section where it would be, and headed there. But in front of the book she needed were two red-haired twin boys being lectured by a slightly older red-haired boy.  
"You know what mom said. You couldn't buy any books other than the ones on the list." The older boy said, glaring at what Dena guessed were his brothers.  
Looking downtrodden, the two boys nodded. "So no Great Practical Joke Spells book, then?" One of them said, she couldn't quite tell the difference. But while the one was looking as if he were being sincere, the other was sneaking around behind the older boy and was taping a sign to his back. Dena stifled a giggle, not wanting to give away the joke.  
"Yes. No extra books. Especially such joke books. You're going to Hogwarts to learn, not to pull pranks." With that, the older boy walked past them all. Dena stifled the laughter as she read what the sign said. "Percy is a big git," it said in flashing neon letters. After he was out of hearing range, she let her laughter out, as did the two boys.  
"'You're going to Hogwarts to learn,'" mimicked one of the twins, and the three started laughing all over again.  
"Oh, forgot our manners almost. Mother would be furious. I'm Fred, and this is my brother George," the boy, Fred, said to Dena after they had all finished laughing. She introduced herself as well, and grabbed her book from the shelf. "So you're starting at Hogwarts too?" he asked her, seeing the book she grabbed.  
"Yes, it should be really interesting. I've never been around witches and such. Can't wait to learn all that neat stuff," Dena said, looking around the book shop at all the books full of new things to read and learn.  
"You mean you were raised by Muggles?" George asked, a hint of amazement in his voice.  
"What are muggles?" Dena asked, confused once again by what she had deemed Wizard-Speak at this point. So much terminology!  
"Non-wizarding folk," Fred explained, staring at this point. Boy, did this girl know nothing?  
"Oh," Dena said, nodding. "Yeah, I guess I was raised by muggles. Never even knew that witches were real until I got that letter."  
"Really?" George asked, in disbelief. Dena nodded.  
"Then I guess we'll just have to change that, eh George?" Fred asked, mischievous glint in his eyes. Catching on quickly, George smiled and nodded, eyes matching his brother's. 


End file.
